Our little 5 month photoshoot

I just love taking pictures of Anna Riley but I am just learning and you can clearly see that.  If I had my choice, she would go to a professional every month because I love pictures that much...I guess I will just settle for mine for another month until her 6 month pictures! :) 

**New post below**

5 months old

Anna Riley turned 5 months on Sunday but because of the super busy weekend I am behind on posting it. 

As I say every month, I cant believe another month has came and gone and my baby girl is a another month older!  Here is what AR is up to at 5 months old:

                                                      

* According to our scales she weighs around 16 1/2 lbs and seems to be about 27in long.

*She wears size 6 and 9 months clothes and a size 3 diaper.

* The queen of cat napping now takes 2 and 3 hour naps! YAY!  All because she discovered the joy of sleeping on her tummy and boy does she love it! She now takes 2 good naps and a 3rd cat nap in the late afternoon to hold her over until bedtime.

* We have established a bedtime at 8:00 and you can tell if you are just a little past that getting her down...its so much harder!  But she sleeps usually from 8-7:30/8 am.  (sometimes longer if I let her but it usually throws our whole morning off but sometimes I am lazy and need the extra zzz's myself! haha) 

*With that being said though, I do have to go in there some nights because she moves around SO much when she sleeps and often is all the way down to the bottom of her crib and has no where to go!

*She still loves sleeping with her Bunny and I let her sleep with it at night now.  She just snuggles up to it...its so cute!

*She can turn her glowing, musical toy in her crib on her own (its just a button you hit).  She has turned it on several times during the night when she has woken up.  I am glad she can do this, because it helps soothe her back to sleep. 

*She just went up to 8 oz. (7 just wasn't cutting it anymore!) and she eats every 4 hours...sometimes we can go longer if we are out and busy but usually I am doing all I can to get her to go 4 hours!  She loves to eat! 

*Since the doctor told us not to eat solids, we haven't went crazy with it but we have tried a few.  I have made her brown rice cereal and we have mixed bananas with it and we have also eaten A LOT of sweet potatoes.  Those are eaten at our house probably once a week anyways so I am so glad that AR seems to like them.  We will probably try a couple more things this month. 

*She will give you a kiss when you ask for it.  But be prepared...it will be open mouth and there might be some tongue involved! :)

*Her newest trick is turning off her bedroom light.  Every time we leave her room she puts her hand on the light switch to turn it off.  (It amazes me how quick babies catch on to things!)
*She LOVES remotes and cell phones...I mean I really dont know where she gets that from?!  Oh and she knows the difference between her play one and the real thing...no fooling her! :)
*She wants to crawl so bad!  She really likes being on her tummy now but the past couple of weeks she gets so frustrated because she cant get anywhere.  She is picking her legs up (like you do when you crawl) but she just cant get the whole concept. 
*She is getting closer and closer to sitting on her own. She can sit for a little while but then she loses her balance and falls over.  Her back is getting really strong though. This is one milestone I am ready for!!  I am tired of toting that heavy carrier everywhere!

*She is teething so bad! Those gums just itch her to death but she does pretty good with it!  But those hands stay in her mouth!

* Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is still a favorite and really the only one she pays attention to.  I usually turn it on in our room in the mornings while I am getting dressed for the day and I will hear her in there just laughing at it.  She thinks Donald Duck is really funny...it must be the way he talks. 

*She laughs out loud all the time now.  And 'talks' and 'sings' to anyone that will listen! :)
*She snorts all the time now.

*She is a Daddy's girl!  She just lights up when Riley is in the room. 

*She is starting to reach.  Granna has been practicing this with her for a while now and she is finally catching on. 

*She loves to play with my hair and our faces when she is trying to go to sleep.

*She enjoys her bedtime stories and tries to turn the pages.  But she has her favorite books.  You can tell if its a book she likes because she sits still and "listens" but if not, she is all over the place.

*She still loves playing with her feet and has tried a couple of times to put her toes in her mouth but just gave up and put her hands there instead.  I guess she thought it was too much trouble! haha 
*She still is mesmerized by her hands. She could just watch them for the longest...especially when she is sleepy!

* She has been in the pool several times and really likes it but it usually puts her to sleep after a while.  She even feel asleep in her float the other day! 

*She still likes her pacie but mostly when she goes to bed.  But she likes for you to put it in her mouth so that she can take it out!  And then she chews on the hard part. 

*She rolls all over the place.  So we have kind of out grown the playmat we used to use and now she just lays on a big quilt and usually still manages to get off of it and onto the hard floors!

*Her hair is growing little by little (even though her Daddy swears that more has fallen out! haha)  but it has just lightened up A LOT!  When she was born her hair was so dark and now its a really light brown.  Still no red...some people like to say it looks red in the sun but I dont see a whole lot of red yet! 
*Her bloct tear ducts have just about cleared up! YAY!  She still has the strawberry on her side!

*She has the biggest brown eyes! I just love them. 

*Everyone has mixed opinions on who AR looks like.  But I do know she looks a lot like my baby pictures but those eyes are Rileys.  I think she is just a good mixture! :)

*Bathtime is still a favorite but I have to really watch her now.  She tries to get really acrobatic or tries to lay down and float. She loves for her ears to be underwater for some reason. 

*She still really likes her exersauser and is very interested in everything on it.  She also just loves laying on a quilt and playing with toys.
*She really misses her Nana and is ready for her to get well and come home so they can play!!

* She is such a happy baby and we are so blessed to have her in our lives! 

Who's watching me?

The other night I had heard some moving around and so I turned the monitor screen on and all I could see were two big eyes!  Apparently, Anna Riley had turned around in her crib and spotted the monitor.  She wanted to know what that was!  haha  So after that she has did it a couple more times during naps.  She is really trying to figure it out.  Right now we just have it sitting on the side of the crib but I have a feeling we will be finding another place before we know it!

Hanging with the "big" girls

She looked like such a big girl in the ladybug chair!

Audrey making sure she is ok! 

Just 'hanging out' :)

Caroline, Emma, Audrey and Anna Riley--BFFs :)

AR loved the ladybug chair, can you tell?

Blogging

I follow several of the "mom" blogs because I love reading about their babies.  I love getting ideas from them.  Two of the blogs I follow have had someone write really rude comments on their blogs.  Both of these girls are SAHMs and the comment was just so rude and hurtful about their choices.  On Kellys Korner she posted a post about how real you are on your blog and why you blog.  I thought I would post my response to that.
 I started my blog so that family could "keep up" with my life and what is going on with me and my family.  Now that Anna Riley is here, I want to use the blog as a scrapbook of our lives.  So mostly...the blog is going to be about her and our family...I dont really keep a baby book, thats why I try to document everything on here.  I got an idea, again from another blog, to make a book of your blog. So I plan to make a book of the blog every year.  SO when the question is ask how real I am... I am real, I am honest.  However, when I am having a bad day, you usually wont know it by my blog.  If Riley and I get in a fight, you cant go to my blog to know that.  Like Kelly said in her blog, I want to remember the good times...not the negative.   Someone that commented said this and I thought it was so true:
"I like to compare blogs to family vacation photos. When we look at the photos, we see a family of smiling people. What we don't see is the luggage that got lost, the mom who had to threaten the lives of her children because they wouldn't stop fighting, the hotel that smelled, and the dad that was on the phone with work for most of the trip. Of course, everyone in the photo remembers all of that.... and probably can laugh about it when looking back. But, that's not what you see in the photo or want to highlight.

A blog is a snapshot..... we mainly write about what we want to remember, celebrate, and learn from. Every now and then, an unflattering picture gets thrown in, but that's what proves we're real and human.

Everyone is different and everyone has different reasons for blogging.  This is just mine.    :)

A first

Sorry no pictures in this post...but since I use this as our family "scrapbook" and its how I document everything...I had to post about it.  :)

Anna Riley FINALLY went to the church nursery last Sunday.  After almost 5 months! haha  And I did great...I mean she did great! : )  I think the sweet nursery ladies were a little worried about me making it through the whole service but I did great and didnt even check the parent pager once!  She had just been doing so great during church that I just always kept her in there with me and she honestly still does.  But, I want her to get used to other adults and playing with other children since she is with me all day and plus I can really pay attention so much better without her there.  It helps that she was smiling when I handed her over and when I went to pick her up she was sound asleep! :)  I know she is in good hands!  And she has even went to the gym nursery a couple of times too! YAY...I usually worry a little more there because they are just young girls but I am right there and the owner is in and out the whole time.   I am getting better! :)

*new post below

Curly Hair??

I just love that AR's hair is finally growing some.  Its really starting to curl up when its wet.  She doesnt stand a chance for straight, silky hair with the hair that her Daddy and I have! Poor thing...at least we know how to fix curly hair around here!

These were taken right after her bath before we brushed it.  :)